BLACK LIVES MATTER.

“Please, I can’t breathe”, called out George Floyd. A 46 year old, father of two, who was murdered in plain sight over an alleged counterfeit $20 bill. A piece of paper was more valuable than an innocent man’s life, according to the cold hearted murderer in a uniform, Derek Chauvin. In case everyone forgot, it’s 2020, not 1930. We live in a world where innocent people are being killed over the colour of their skin, and the murderers are being excused. How many more George Floyd’s, Breonna Taylor’s, and Ahmaud Arbery’s do there need to be? How many more innocent lives need to be taken for this to stop? If you’re not speaking out about this right now, you are the problem. If you believe that white privilege doesn’t exist, you are the problem. If you choose to be silent in this situation, you are the problem. Wherever you live in the world, wake up. This isn’t only happening in the U.S., it’s happening everywhere. Wake up and acknowledge the problem, wake up and support those who need it, wake up and accept your privilege and use your voice to get justice.

Looters and Shooters

Last night, I opened up Twitter to read about updates on the protest happening in Minneapolis, and I saw Donald Trump’s tweet. I’ve never thought that less than 280 characters could make me physically ill, but the leader of the most powerful country in the world proved me otherwise. The PRESIDENT tweeted that he valued grocery store items, more than black lives. He values inanimate objects more than humans with beating hearts. His tweet was so inhumane and vile, that Twitter took it down. After feeling sick from reading his tweet, I started scrolling more to find that other white people valued Target more than black lives. Saying that burning buildings won’t do anything for George Floyd. The reality is, staying quiet won’t bring justice to him either. People are angry, as they should be. This has happened so many times, and everyone is angry. Angry that the justice system is unfair in the 20th century, angry that the police force would go so far to protect a murderer, angry that this won’t stop. Take a second and imagine if George Floyd was your dad, husband, brother, or friend. If that was someone you loved, and you saw their life taken away from them and filmed, you would be angry too. This anger has been building up for so long, Target will recover, but those innocent lives won’t. As someone who is a person of colour, but not black, I will never truly understand what that feels like, but I know I have a voice, a voice that I can use. I know I have a heart to empathize with those in pain, and you do too. No matter what colour you are, these are innocent humans being taken away. You are immorally wrong if you choose to stay silent. If you believe that stealing items from Target is wrong, and won’t do anything for George Floyd, isn’t it wrong that thousands of innocent black Americans die every year? Isn’t it wrong that the president is protecting a killer? Isn’t it wrong to die from the colour of your skin?

White Privilege and Silence

If you are white, or any non-black person, and you choose to stay silent, you are part of the problem. No matter how many followers you have, you have a voice. Use any platform that you have to speak out against injustice. Do your part, and speak up. Post about the victims, spread the word to family and friends, sign the online petitions, but don’t remain silent. Silence is betrayal. We learned about racism and slavery in school, learning about it like it was history. But it’s not, it’s in the present. It’s happening right in front of your eyes, and if you choose to ignore it, you are betraying the human race. To everyone who believes that we should be saying “all lives matter”, think about this. If there was a group of five kids, and one kid skid his knee and needed a band aid, would you give all 5 kids a band aid? No, you wouldn’t. You would give the kid with the injured knee a band aid. So if you’re white and think you’re oppressed, you’re not. Use all that energy for something good, something that matters.

Protest in a Pandemic

There have been two protests going on during this pandemic. First, privileged people who don’t want to be in quarantine wearing masks. Second, people who are risking their health to protest for the justice of an innocent man, and bring peace to a community. When white people were protesting for quarantine to stop, none of them were severely harmed, none of them were tear gassed, and none of them were shot with rubber bullets. You can’t argue that the white protesters were being violent, because they were. Pushing and spitting at police officers. But I guess that’s okay, because they’re white. Yet, when black people protest for their safety, they are harmed in such a vile way.

Canada’s Part

If you believe that Canada is really safe, and non-racist, you’re wrong. Not being racist isn’t enough. USE YOUR VOICE! An innocent woman was pushed off her balcony by a police man, in Toronto. This is happening in our very own backyards. It’s time to stop being ignorant and realize that this needs to stop.

Writing this made me very emotional, knowing what is happening to the innocent lives out there. Please, if you haven’t already, spread awareness. We need all hands on deck. I just read that the murderer in uniform has been arrested. But we can’t stop here. That is one, out of thousands who need to be arrested. Click this link to sign the petition. https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/